Experience dishes of Sai Gon’s Chinatown

15/10/2018 327 5/5 trong 20 rates

When Chinese refugees came to Cho Lon (Sai Gon’s Chinatown) over 200 years ago, not only did they bring their traditions, culture, and etiquette but they also brought with them their delicious cuisine.

Xoi Bat Buu (Chinese Sticky Rice)

Together with banh mi, xoi (sticky rice) is a common street food that Vietnamese people love to eat during any time of the day. Xoi Bat Buu is a Chinese dish that that is hard to find anywhere else other than in Chinatown. The flavor is sweet and sour from the char siu (grilled pork), Chinese sausage, salted radish, and dried shrimp. It also smells good because of the soy sauce used and the use of shiitake mushrooms makes it a wonderful addition in terms of taste and texture.

Address: 254 Le Quang Sung, Ward 6, District 6. The price is 15,000 VND for a packet of xoi.

Ha cao (Dimsum)

It would be remiss not to mention the Chinese dim sum. Just like sushi, dim sum in Sai Gon is mainly sold in fancy restaurants at higher prices. But when you are in Chinatown, you can expect to find mouth-watering dim sum on the streets and they barely cost you a dollar.

Address: 201 Le Quang Sung, Ward 6, District 6

Hot ga tra (Chinese egg tea soup dessert)

The Chinese egg tea soup is made of peeled egg, Chinese herbal tea, sugar, and water. Certainly sounds weird to put an egg in tea, but this is worth a try. There are some places where you can find hot ga tra in Chinatown:

Che Ha Ky is the most famous among the shops serving this in Chinatown. Apart from Chinese egg tea soup, they also serve more than 38 different types of sweet soups priced reasonably: 20,000 VND for a bowl of hot ga tra and from 15,000 VND to 25,000 VND for other sweet soups (che).

Che Cot Dien on 476 Tran Hung Đao, Ward 14, District 5 was started by a Chinese refugee in 1938 who served only a pot of green bean sweet soup. More than 70 years later, the shop is now famous among other districts too. You can find hot ga tra for only 20,000 VND and the price for other sweet soups starts from 15,000 VND.